Field-pence



JOHN DRO\VN, OF HURON, NEXV YORK.

FIELD-FENCE.

Specification of Letters Patent No.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN DROWN, of Huron, in the county of Vayne and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Portable Fence; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and eXact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, Figure 1 being a plan of a portion of the fence; Fig. 2, a side elevation thereof; Figsf3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, transverse sections showing slight modifications in the construction.

Like letters designate corresponding parts in all the figures.

The sections of the fence are made by nailing to rails A, A, upright pickets a, a, or in any ordinary manner. Additional pickets b, b, may also be nailed to the rails, opposite to the end pickets a, a, to support the rails firmly on that side. The ends of each of the rails A, A, of adjacent sections, are halved together, as represented at 0, 0, so that they will present the uniform width of single rails. The ends of the lower rails, where joined together, rest in chairs B, B, of suitable length and size to serve as a firm foundation for the fence. The notch or mortise d, which receives the ends of the lower rails, is made slightly flaring, as represented in Figs. 3, at, and 5; and the joined ends of the lower rails, which are to rest therein, are made beveled or wedging, downward, so as to correspond with, and fit, the form of the notch in the chair. The notch is made somewhat deeper than the thickness of the rails, leaving a space 7, below them, so that said rails may be pressed farther down into the notch, when necessary, to wedge them together. The overlapping ends of the upper rails are also made suit-- ably wedge-shaped or beveled, but upward instead of downward, so as to fit into a notch in a clamp C, similar to that in the chair B, but in the lower edge of the clamp, as represented in the drawings. When the ends of the upper and lower rails are thus together fitted into the chair B, and the clamp C, the latter being parallel with the other, by drawing and holding the clamp tightly toward the chair vertically, the sections of the fence will be firmly and securely united. For this purpose, I make use of tension wires 9, g, which are tightly drawn 19,353, dated February 16, 1858.

vertically between both of the corresponding ends of the chair and clamp. They may be secured to said chair and clamp in any convenient manner. Fig. 3, for instance, represents them as attached to nails driven into the centers of the ends of the clamp, and into the top of the chair, vertically, below; Fig. 4, represents them as doubled through the clamp, and the ends thereof attached to nails driven into the opposite sides of the chair. Then the chair and clamp are thus connected, the connecting wires extending from the chair to the clamp in a direction perpendicular thereto, the distance between said chair and clamp is necessarily lessened if the fence is swayed in either direction sidewise, thereby wedging the ends of the rails more closely into the notches (Z, d, and giving great firmness to the fence; so that the use of posts or stakes in the fence is dispensed with, the wires g, 9, giving all the strength and firmness required to resist any ordinary force to which the fence may be subjected.

Fig. 5, represents a slight modification, in which the wires g, 9, do not extend down quite perpendicularly to the chair, but incline slightly outward from the top to the bottom. A connecting-rod or link h, equal. in length to the distance between the wires, where secured to the clamp, is extended from one wire to the other, just below the clamp, and wound around the wires, so as to embrace them, and then forced downward thereon until the said wires are made sufficiently taut, and brought into vertical, parallel positions above the connecting-rod, so that the fence can by this means at any time be more firmly braced and held together, and the essential quality of the vertical wires is virtually retained.

If desirable, the lower rails may be locked permanently in the chair by making the notch therein rectangular, as represented in Fig. 6; or of dovetail form, as represented in Fig. 7; and of suflicient size to admit a wedge or key 2', which will firmly retain the rails therein. The action of the clamp and wires in this case is the same as above described.

The fence may be kept in its place by driving short stakes 7c, 7:, provided with projecting heads, down upon the chairs, as represented in Fig. 4.

What I claim as my invention and desire The above specification of my improved to secure by Letters Patent, is fence si ned by me this first day of Septem- The combination of the Wedging clamps ber, 185%. and chairs with the perpendicular tension JOHN DROWN. 5 Wires or rods, arranged and operating to- Witnesses:

gether substantially in the manner and for DANIEL Down, the purposes herein specified. DANIEL HAYFORD. 

